Fangbangers
by Opheila Morganna
Summary: Bella, Alice and Rosalie head to Forks to hunt down the gorgeous vampires Alice lusts over. As the girls are thrown into a world with beautiful immortals, will they find more than they expect? AU Dark/Emoward.
1. 1 Flight of Fancy

**All characters in this story are the property of Stephenie Meyer, I just play with the little sparkly world she's created for us. :)**

**A/N Ok guys, welcome to my first ever fanfic :) There's going to some pretty dark themes later on, some swearing, a little lemon goodness and a liberal helping of Darkward so if any of these things offend you, look away now! Hope you enjoy...**

I sat, straight backed and unsure in the leather chair infront of my PC while Alice bounced excitably in my lap.

"Oh but it'll be just perfect, you cant chicken out now!" She clapped her hands together and let out a squeal.

I eyed Rosalie, sitting next to me, with some scepticism. She rolled her violet eyes at me and cleared her throat. "It's our summer vacation, Alice. I for one don't intend to spend it one of the rainiest places in the whole damn country. I was picturing more of a white sand, sangria and muscley lifeguard sort of holiday."

I smirked and watched as Alice's little mouth turn into a downward pout. Oh God, not the Brandon pout. There wasn't a man, woman or child immune to that. Then a glimmer appeared in her eyes, she leaned closer to the computer screen, clicking manically on the poor overworked mouse. "There's LA Push right next to it, that has a gorgeous beach, Rose." Her toes were wiggling with delight as she perused the website. "We could stay there, you could sunbathe to your heart's content." She wheedled, throwing her a pleading look.

Rose's expression seemed to soften slightly.

"Plus, Forks is the logging capital of the world. Now you cant tell me you'd pass up the opportunity to see that." I added. Alice seemed to miss the sarcasm, thankfully.

Alice had been trying to convince us to go to Forks on our summer vacation for ages now. About six months ago she'd developed this huge obsession over vampires. I know, it sounds completely ridiculous. It is, really. But through the magical powers of the internet she'd discovered that they actually existed, and resided in some parts of the world to the ignorance of most of the population. Namely Forks, Washington. Alice was convinced that she could find some and, I don't know, flutter her eyelashes at them. With a fierce look, she reassured Rose and I that this information was 'burrowed deep' in the web and not easily accessable. There were websites dedicated to sightings of the pale skinned, impossibly beautiful immortals, spreading from Alaska to the aforementioned logging capital of the world. People swearing they'd spotted one, conversed with one or had some kind of sexual encounter with one. She'd done her research, you had to give her that.

The idea appealed to me, but I did have my vague suspicions that this vampire hunting stuff would probably turn out to be complete rubbish. No, I was inclined to go along with the idea simply because Forks was where my father, Charlie lived. I'd not seen my Dad in a while, and whenever we did meet up he'd always travel here, to Phoenix to see me. This arrangement had never been questioned in the 18 years it'd been going on, but I assumed it was to do with my mother being unable to stand Forks and leaving poor old Charlie there alone. I guess he didn't want to inflict the dull, rainy place on me too. It'd be great to see him though. Charlie wasn't a man of many words, but I could imagine the look of surprise on his face.

When I told Alice all this, her face lit up in a way that I usually associated with a shopping trip. It had totally sealed the deal on this vamp adventure. Rosalie had been less than thrilled. Now we all sat here, trying to exude the same enthusiasm for booking hotels as Alice. We were failing ever so slightly.

"Tell me we can at least take my wheels." Rosalie raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "If we're doing a Thelma and Louise, I don't fancy doing it in that pile of crap Bella drives."

"How dare you Hale, my Chevy is the sturdiest thing out there. I only have to sneeze in the direction of your car and the exhaust falls off." I huffed, well used to slurs on my baby.

"You two are ridiculous. We're not *driving* to Forks, even the immortals will have kicked the bucket by the time we get there. We're going to fly." Alice beamed at us.

"Oh no. No, no, no." I stomped my foot to the ground and my cheeks flushed scarlet. "You're not getting me anywhere near a plane. When I semi agreed to this plan I thought we'd drive and then get a ferry. The deals off now." I stared down at the carpet.

"Bella, are you frightened of flying?" Said Rose, incredulous.

"We cant all jet off to the Carribean every other month, Rose." I lifted my shamed eyes from the floor and stared at her, defiantly.

"Bella's never flown anywhere before." Alice said, matter of factly.

"Alice!" I threw the traitorous pixie a dirty look.

Rosalie flashed me a kind smile and reached over to squeeze my hand. The gesture took me by surprise. "It's not that bad, and the flight cant be that long. I'll hold your hand, we'll be back on the ground before you know it." She said.

"This means we're going then?!" Alice clasped her hands together, barely able to contain her excitement.

"It certainly looks like it." Said Rosalie, throwing her hands up in defeat. "Make sure you book extra luggage allowance on that flight, I have some serious bikini packing to do."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't think vampires go in for the bronzed beach babe look, Rose."

"Like I'm going to let some scary assed bloodsucker see me in my bikini! I was thinking more of the sexy lifeguards of LA Push."

I chose not to respond to that, and eyed Alice suspiciously instead. "What about you? What exactly have you got planned to seduce these mythical beings?"

Alice leaned back against me, swinging her legs cheerfully. "Mythical, my ass. You'll see, I'll knock them dead. Again." She giggled.

*****

Cramped. Claustrophobic. Being fired into space inside a glorified tin can. Fear.

"For fucks sake Bella, would you breathe already?" Rose leant over the armrest and jabbed me in the ribs. "We haven't even taken off yet." She stared at me, amused. "You haven't even got your seatbelt on yet."

I gave her a menancing look which was supposed to silence her, but it only served to make her chuckle.

"I cant help being afraid of flying, Rosalie. It's new to me, everyone's afraid of something they've never done before. That's why you're afraid of dressing conservatively."

Somewhere to my left, Alice let out a tinkling laugh. "If I'd have known planes made you this grumpy, I'd have gone along with the driving idea."

"I'm perfectly fine." This was a blatant lie. I was infact, terrified. But I'd brave it out, how bad could it be? The niggling voice in the back of my head reminded me that was the sort of thing people said before they died horrifically in a freak accident. I shook my head to get rid of that thought.

A pretty air hostess wandered over at that moment, distracting me from wondering if we'd be on the ten o'clock news tonight. She approached our aisle with a broad smile, all red hair and lipstick. "Hi ladies, can I get you anything at all before take off?" She cast an appraising eye over me. "You should have that belt on now, ma'am." She said, disapprovingly. "Do you require assistance?"

Rosalie snorted. I raised my head stubbornly, tucking my hair behind my ears. "No, thank you. I'm fine." I considered whether I'd ever actually truthfully tell someone I was fine as I fumbled with the awkward seatbelt.

Aliced smiled at the woman. "I'd love a sparkling mineral water if you have one."

"A bottle of champagne and three glasses, please." Said Rose, "And a paper bag for my friend here, she'll probably need it for take off."

I gave her another disgusted look before I folded my arms, shoved my Ipod earbuds into my ears and shut my eyes. I drifted into the familiar, soothing melody almost at once.

Take off wasn't too traumatic. A little bumpy, but nothing to overly alarm me. After about an hour I felt confident enough in my lack of puking to remove my earphones and start up a conversation. "So, I rang Charlie before we left and told him we were coming to Forks. He totally freaked."

Alice turned in her seat to face me. "Yay, Bella! He probably didn't think you even knew where Forks was. I bet he's really excited. Maybe he'll even have some information on the vampires..." she trailed off into a daydream of frolicking with a gorgeous immortal.

"He said we could all stay with him if we wanted." I began rummaging in my bag for the chocolate I'd thought to bring.

"The hotel's all booked now, beachside hotel remember? That was the deal." Said Rose. "I didn't pack my suncream for nothing."

I looked up from my candy search, brushing my hair from my face. "Yeah I vetoed that idea. I'm sure in theory he'd love it, but three teenage girls fighting over one bathroom... He'd probably change his mind."

Rosalie nodded. She twisted around in her seat, staring past me to see the still daydreaming Alice. She clicked her fingers impatiently to grab her attention. "What exactly is your plan with the whole vamp thing anyway, if you actually find one? I don't really get it."

Alice blinked a few times, her green eyes flickering beneath her lashes. "What? Oh, right. Well, isn't it obvious? I cant believe you need to ask that."

"It's not obvious to those of us without a fang fetish." I reminded her.

Rosalie wrinkled her nose. "Exactly. I just don't see the appeal of something so cold and bitey anyway. My kind of guy is all rippling muscles and plays centerback, he doesn't hang upside down in caves all day."

"Mmmm, bitey." Said Alice, licking her lips and winking.

"Eww, can i get a TMI on that?" I launched my pillow at her. She squealed in delight as it collided with her face, squashing her spikey tresses. I heard a loud, disgruntled tut from somewhere over my shoulder and smothered a giggle. I stealthily risked a glance behind me to come face to face with a balding man. He had the most ridiculous moustache I'd ever seen, it was sitting under his nose like a hairy slug. At this point I had to actually stuff my fist into my mouth to stop myself letting out a laugh. Rosalie, noticing my mirth copied me and turned around, sweeping her blonde mane over her shoulder in the process. "Yes?" She snapped at the guy, her eyes narrowing.

"Could you try and keep it down? This is a flight to Sea Tac, not a school trip to the zoo." His moustache wiggled with every syllable. Rosalie snorted and, apparently didn't feel the need to furnish him with a response. She whipped back round and mouthed to Alice, "Pass me the camera, i gotta snap this motherfucker".

I couldn't feel too apprehensive about the rest of the flight with Rose entertaining us, to the disapproval of the other passengers. Before I knew it, my uncultured feet were touching down on solid ground once more and I could breathe a sigh of relief. We filed out of the craft into the airport with the grace of elephants fighting their way out of a paper bag. I'd managed to capsule pack, everything I need fitted quite happily into my one suitcase which I was carting around with ease. The same couldn't be said for Rosalie and Alice however, who seemed to feel they needed a year's worth of clothes. "And accessories!" Alice shrieked, as I pointed this out to her. Accessories, of course. We couldn't enter Forks under-accessorized, fuck forbid.

It was raining as we reached LA Push, obviously. I couldn't help but feel Rose had packed one too many bikinis and not enough thermals as I urged the hired Sedan into the hotel carpark. It was a beautiful setting though, I mused as we crunched up the gravel path, all six bags in tow. The place had a homely feel to it, nestled amidst all the tall greenery. It was one of those old yellow bricked buildings, with lots of log cabins out the back. The ocean ran behind the hotel and I strained my ears, hoping to catch the slightest crashing of waves. But the rain was pelting down too thick and fast, obscuring any noise of the ocean calling to me. A fat droplet ran down my cheek as the wind whipped soaked tendrils of hair around my face. I chanced a look at Alice, she was staring up at the 'Rooms Vacant' sign, her eyes alight. Apparently even the crappy weather couldn't dampen her spirits. Rose was another story. I heard a heavy huffing sound as she squelched up behind me, dragging her designer luggage with her. "This is supposed to be summer, Bella, what the fuck?" She shot me an accusatory look.

I raised one drenched arm to gesture at the cabins in the distance. "But look, logs. Aren't you glad you came?"

"I came, I saw and now I want to go the hell home."

I rolled my eyes and linked my sodden arm into the crook of her elbow. As I pulled her forwards into the foyer, I wondered what delights this Forks place had in store for us. The fucking vampire hunters.

**A/N Thanks so much for reading! All comments and constructive criticism welcome. Xx**


	2. 2: Jacob, Jerks and Jenga

**Chapter 2: Jacob, Jerks and Jenga**

**A/N: Hey sweeties! Big thanks to those that reviewed my last chapter, and to those that favourited it. *dances* :D**

**Chapter 2 coming up.. I'm nervous to say that there's a little Jacob in this *ducks* But hey, we have to let our Bella choose right? And we cant blame Jacob for thinking she's a beauty. Fear not though, the girls are hot on the vampires trail and a certain sparkly someone will be making his appearance very soon...**

I ducked as a mass of green satin material hurtled towards my head. Unfortunately I was no match for the skilled garment and it overpowered me, smothering my head and shoulders. I had absolutely no doubt that I looked like a particularly ridiculous shrub. "I'm not wearing it." I said, my voice slightly muffled. A particularly ridiculous talking shrub. Great.

We had barely checked in and settled the argument over rooms before my two girls had started talking about going out to check out 'local talent' as Rose had put it. I had no intention of going out, which I'd demonstrated rather obviously by collapsing onto the pine bed and refusing to budge. My refusal didn't hold much sway under Alice's furious glare though, and before I knew it she was trying to coerce me into a dress. I thought I heard her mutter words like "Whole point of the trip" and "brings out your eyes" as she threw the green thing at me but it was hard to tell, she had a blusher brush clamped between her teeth.

I had always envied my two best friends, and I felt a surge of that now as I watched them get ready. Rosalie, with her beautiful blonde hair and long slender legs was every guys dream. She was every inch the beauty queen and was always perfectly made up and dressed to kill. Then there was Alice, her petite frame made guys weak at the knees, falling over themselves to scoop her up and protect her. Add to that her sparkling green eyes and heart-stopping smile... Well, I had good reason to be envious. My eyes were as brown as mud and my long hair matched. Even though I knew I wasn't hideous, I often felt like the ugly sister next to Cinderella and Tinkerbell. I swept these notions aside, I wasn't going to let negative crap ruin our vacation but I really was too exhausted for the whole bar scene. "Seriously girls, I'm shattered. One drink and I'd be asleep in Rose's lap again, and we don't want a repeat of New Years Eve, do we?" I batted my eyelashes jokingly in Rose's direction.

"No we don't, that was enough of an encounter into lesbianism for me thank you very much." she threw herself down next to me on the bed, laughing.

Alice surveyed my worn out face, while applying liberal amounts of eyeshadow. "I'll let you off tonight, but we are going to get you dressed up and drag you to a bar at some point on this holiday." She waggled a free finger at me threateningly.

I stifled a yawn. "Yes, mistress of the fun." The bed felt so warm and inviting, I was tempted to curl up under the sheets immediately even though it was only 7pm. Rubbing my eyes, I peeked out of the window. It was beautiful out there, though it was almost dark you could just make out the sea in the distance. "I might have a walk around the beach too," I mused.

A flurry of tops, mascara and shoes later I glanced at the clock as my two beautiful friends gathered their purses and headed out the door. 7.30. A quick peep out of the window again told me it was still raining, but much more lightly than the torrential downpour that welcomed us here. A little rain never hurt anyone, I thought to myself. I snatched up my brown jacket from the back of the chair and pulled it on, making my way outside.

It didn't take long for me to reach the beach, even with my slow pace. I stopped in my tracks, it was absolutely beautiful. The wide expanse of cool water was foaming as the rain hit it, waves crashing their way to the shore. There were a few feet of hard golden sand, the rest of the ground, including where my feet were planted was covered in pebbles. The shoreline was littered with tree skeletons, branches and trunks turned powdery white from the salt. I raised my hand to my eyes, squinting and could make out cliffs just in the distance. Even they were covered in lush greenery. Everything in this damn place was green, I thought with a smirk, remembering my brief dressing up as a shrub earlier.

Charlie always raved about the rockpools up on this beach, my feet were itching to carry me to them immediately. As I gazed over at the rocks, gauging how long it would take me to get to them, and how many falls I would have on the way, I decided to have a rest first. I sank down onto the pebbles, bringing my knees up to my chest and resting my head on them. My hand combed the ground, searching idly for a smooth stone. As my fingers closed around the perfect one, I scooped it up and raised my arm high above my head. Grinning goofily I lobbed it with all my strength towards the shore. I watched it sail through the air and land about six inches from the water. My grin slipped from my face instantly, and a frown replaced it. "Stupid faulty pebble." I huffed. My second attempt was more successful, and I watched in delight as the flint skimmed and skipped through the water. I fought the urge to do a happy dance.

Dusting my hands off, I got to my feet and began the hike over to the rockpools. Hiking and Bella never really go well together. To be honest, walking trip-free and Bella don't tend to go hand in hand either. My general motto in life is 'If it's there, I'll trip over it and fall flat on my face.' It was a constant source of amusement to Alice, who had the grace of a ballerina and couldn't understand how someone could just stumble with such reckless abandon.

I did make it to the rockpools though, and with only a few scrapes and cuts. I allowed myself a celebratory twirl for my success. Unfortunately the rain had made the rocks slippery, I felt my boot slide out from under me almost in slow motion and threw my arms out wildly to balance myself. I promptly fell face first into the pool of water.

"Hey, you there!" A voice called out in the distance. I heard feet pound towards me. The first thought that shot through me wasn't one of relief at someone coming to my aid, as it probably should have been. It was more sheer embarrassment. A witness. Fabulous.

The feet slammed down onto the rock nearest me and I felt strong arms wrap around my waist and heave me out of the water. As I was set to my feet, I turned around to face my rescuer. Infront of me was a boy with long black hair, tied casually up in a ponytail and beautiful russet skin. His brown eyes looked me up and down, checking for injuries. He couldn't have been more than 16 or 17.

My cheeks burned with shame at being pulled to my rescue like a fricking damsel in distress. "Thank you so much." I said, mortified as I began wringing my sopping hair out with my hands.

"No problem. Are you ok? Are you hurt?" He eyed me with some concern. I saw his gaze linger on the torn hole in the knee of my jeans.

"Oh I'm fine, really. This happens to me all the time, you wouldn't believe it. I trip over walls, grass, my own feet, thin air... One wrong move and I tumble over." I babbled, embarrassed.

The boy let out a gruff bark of laughter. "You sound like a Jenga block."

"Something like that! A particularly clumsy brand of Jenga, that's me." I finally felt able to laugh with him at my own expense. "When I was a toddler my mom was convinced I had one leg shorter than the other I was so clumsy, she took me to the doctors and everything. Turns out I just don't look where I'm going."

Why was I waffling on like this? Maybe I was going into shock.

"Well pleased to meet you, clumsy girl. I'm Jacob, expert Jenga saver." My rescuer extended his hand to me. I took it, his palm was oddly warm on this freezing cold day.

"Bella." I offered, with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Bella."

I began to shiver, getting chilled in my damp clothes as the wind rushed against me.

Jacob noticed. "Come on, if you start walking back over to the shoreline the wind wont catch you so badly." He began to trek in the direction of the pebbles. I followed in his wake pitifully, rubbing my arms to smooth the goosebumps. The walking seemed to warm me and I was loathe to stop when we reached the sand, so Jacob and I meandered along the shore, chatting easily.

Mid sentence, I stopped as I noticed Jacob staring at me. "What?" I wondered if I had seaweed in my hair.

He looked embarrassed to be caught in the act. "I just thought I recognized you, like I'd seen you somewhere before. But I don't know how, I can tell by your lack of depression and thermals that you're not a resident here." He flashed me an easy grin.

"Ha ha. That's a really cliched line you know." I rolled my eyes and nudged his shoulder as we strolled along the sand.

He flushed then, his tanned skin taking on a slight rosey hue. "No I mean it. It's your eyes, they remind me of someone..." He trailed off, looking down at his feet, shamefaced. "What brings you to La Push anyway?"

"I'm on summer vacation with some friends of mine. At least, it was summer when I left Phoenix. Apparently the sun doesn't come out to play in Washington."

His booming laugh carried on the wind and seemed to fill the entire beach. "Why would you choose here of all places? Surely you have enough trouble in normal climate, why risk the added hazard of rain?" He teased.

I scowled and shook my fist in his general direction. "Well Forks is actually our headed destination. My father, Charlie lives there. I thought I'd drop in and visit." It wasn't a lie, and I didn't feel like telling this stranger all about Alice's desire to hook up with a fanged guy.

He looked up now, eyes wide in recognition. "Charlie Swan?" He asked.

I nodded. "That's him. You know him?"

"He's a good friend of my Dad." Jacob beamed, staring intently at me again. "Oh man, now I know why I recognized you. You remind me so much of him."

I frowned, unsure whether to take that as a compliment. I reminded him of a forty year old, moustached man. Jeez, thanks. "I remind you of Charlie? But I haven't lectured you on road safety or the importance of using the right fishing bait or anything." I joked.

He smirked. "It's your eyes. They're so expressive. I've watched Charlie play cards with my old man once a week for donkeys years, he never wins. Terrible poker face. The eyes betray you Swans."

I groaned. That was true enough. People were always telling me my eyes betrayed me, gave my every emotion away.

"That makes your Dad Billy Black then?" I'd heard Charlie talk about him often. "This is such a crazy coincidence, I haven't even met up with Charlie yet and his friend's son is hauling me out of rockpools."

"Everybody knows everybody else round here." He informed me cheerfully.

I glanced down at my watch. "Holy crow, look at the time!" We'd been talking for over two hours. "I'd better get back, I'm bound to be on hangover nursing duty when I get to the hotel." I smiled at him. "Thanks so much again for the whole saving me crap."

"You're welcome. Why don't you and Charlie come to ours for dinner tomorrow? We can all have a proper reunion."

"Sounds great." I said. "Plus it gets me out of shopping tomorrow." I added happily as I turned around and began making my way back to the hotel.

He might not be a hunk of immortal beauty, but I was pleased to have made a friend in Jacob Black. Especially if it got me out of shopping trips.

******

"No way are you wriggling out this shopping trip, Bella Swan!" Alice's voice reverberated around the room the next morning.

I'd tried in vain to explain how I was going to Charlie's and we were having dinner with a friend of his. Strangely I didn't want to fill them in on Jacob, not that there was anything to hide.

Alice wasn't having any of it. She folded her arms, fixed me with The Look and stamped her foot. My lips twitched at seeing her act like an irritated little sprite.

"I have to see Charlie, Alice. He'll be really upset if I don't go." I hammed it up a little, she didn't need to know that my dad had no idea of our dinner plans yet.

She decided to change tack quickly. "Fine, we can go shopping this morning and then you can go to dinner with him when we get back." She smiled brightly, with a face that may aswell have said 'Get out of that one, bitch.'

Sensing this was the best deal I was likely to get, I nodded.

Rosalie grinned. "That works quite well actually because we met some guys last night..."

I raised an eyebrow at her as she glanced at Alice. "Somebody decided to quiz the local people on anyone in town who was a bit unusual." Rose embellished, rolling her eyes.

"It worked, didn't it?" Said Alice defensively. She turned to me in delight. "We met these two boys in a bar last night, Mike and Tyler. Tyler was telling me there were a couple of odd guys in their school last year, they used to disappear hiking a lot. Seemed a bit suspicious to me." She positively vibrated with glee.

"While Mike just stared at my chest for the entire evening." Added Rose. "So the idea queen over here told them they were taking us out for dinner tonight to grill them for more information."

I looked from one to the other as I doubled up laughing. "I cant believe you, Alice."

An hour later we were headed into Port Angeles, Rosalie in the driving seat with Alice fiddling with the radio. I had to admit I wouldn't have wanted to miss this, it was nice to get down to some girly time, summer vacation style.

"I love this one." I yelled over the song, leaning forward to turn it up even louder. Alice and I performed a beautiful duet while Rose conducted us, drumming on the steering wheel to the beat.

It didn't take us long to get there, Rosalie was known for her fast driving, something she knew I hated. As soon as I'd swung my feet out of the Sedan, the two of them went into crazy fashionista mode. I knew it'd happen, it happened every single time we did this.

It was exactly as I predicted. Alice had grabbed my hand in her tiny one with surprising force and the pair of them steered me into shop after shop. They twirled down aisles, hands expertly rifling through rails of clothes and arms loaded with likely choices. They had me parading up and down the changing rooms like a show poodle in the most ridiculous clothes, their smiles wide.

"Bella, you have to play up your eyes." Said Alice firmly, hand on hip as I emerged from the cubicle in yet another get up.

"How does that explain the frilly pink nightmare an hour ago?" I huffed.

I looked down at myself. I was sporting a deep blue shirt and soft brown corduroys. "Ok, I like this." I conceded.

"Of course you do, you look beautiful." Said Rose, returning with another armful and hurling my next costume change at me.

After shoving myself awkwardly into it, I threw the curtains back. "Just what in the name of God is this?" I said through clenched teeth.

I was standing there in a halterneck dress, the colour of deepest aubergine. It had a plunging neckline and a slit up the calf. I felt completely ridiculous.

Alice clapped her hands together and squealed. "Bella, you look drop dead gorgeous!"

"I look drop dead hilarious." I corrected.

They wouldn't let me leave without the dress. The pair of them frogmarched me to the checkout to buy it along with the other, more modest purchases I'd chosen.

It was a lot more fun helping Alice and Rose shop. Of course they looked beautiful in everything they tried, so the compliments I showered them with were always genuine.

Rose had claimed we needed outfits for our nights out, which explained the dress. I was perfectly happy with my wardrobe but apparently Forks deserved better than my usual evening attire. Rose had picked the shortest crimson red dress known to man, backless, of course. She'd picked something that kept her boobs covered though, because apparently that would have crossed the line from classy to slutty. I nodded knowledgeably at this comment, as if I had any real clue. Alice's choice hadn't been a dress at all. Instead she'd grabbed a pair of black leather trousers off the rail and squeezed her tiny ass into those. Coupled with a forest green corset she looked sensational. The colour set her eyes off in a way I could never hope to achieve with my blue shirt.

Our arms heaving with bags, we collapsed back into the car. The damage to our bank accounts had been fairly severe but shit, if you cant splash out on holiday, when can you? I'd enjoyed the shopping spree a lot more than I'd expected.

As we rolled into the hotel carpark my thoughts turned to Charlie and dinner at the Blacks.

It was strange, standing infront of the house I was born in. Looking at the front door that my mother left through, carrying a tiny two month old me. Staring up at the window to the bedroom my dad still slept in. Yet not recognising any of it whatsoever.

Alice and Rosalie got out with me, squeezed me tight and planted a kiss on both my cheeks simultaneously. "We'll say hi before we leave." Alice said to me, taking hold of my hand.

I don't know why I was nervous, it was stupid. I saw my dad every summer back in Phoenix. It was just something about coming here to his home, which was once *my* home that weirded me out a little. I took a deep, steadying breath and rapped on the front door.

We heard footsteps make their way closer and suddenly, the door swung open.

"Bells!" Charlie said, grinning. There was the look of surprise I'd pictured back in Phoenix, I thought to myself.

"Hi dad." I stepped forward, the same question in my mind as every time we met. Do we go for the awkward hug? I gingerly put my arms around him. He cleared his throat, swung one arm around my shoulder and used the other to pat my back, looking nothing short of alarmed. Every year, the same uncomfortable but loving hug.

"Oh, dad, this is Alice and Rosalie." I introduced them politely. "Girls, this is Charlie." I suppose it was odd they'd never met before, but meeting up with Charlie was always awkward and I didn't want to make him more uncomfortable by bringing in my galpals.

With all the polite pleasantries out the way, Alice and Rose disappeared off to pump Mike and Tyler for information. Pun probably intended, I thought to myself wryly. I then quickly regaled the story of meeting Jacob Black to Charlie, and explained that we were going round there for dinner. He looked taken aback, but pleased. By the sounds of it he and Billy spent a lot of time together anyway so it was probably nothing out of the ordinary for him.

He drove us to La Push in his police car, which was fairly mortifying. We'd barely got our seatbelts off before Jacob Black bounced out of the house infront of us.

"Hey guys, you came!" He said cheerfully.

I returned the smile as I got out of police chief Swan's car of shame.

"Just leave me behind, why don't you." A voice called from back inside the house.

Jacob rolled his eyes and dashed back inside. He emerged wheeling out a man that could only have been his father. Save for the lines on his face, and the weary white smile he was the spitting image of Jacob. "You must be Bella." He smiled at me. "Jake here wont shut up about you." He jerked a thumb in his son's direction.

Jacob shot him a disgusted look, but I laughed. "About my complete lack of balance, I assume." I retorted, flashing Jacob a smile to stop him from scowling at Billy.

It was a really enjoyable evening, sitting around Billy's kitchen table listening to him and Charlie talk away, telling tales of old times. Jacob would chime in every so often to correct them and call them out on exaggerations, usually over the size of a fish.

When we'd all finished eating and Charlie and Billy retired to the living room, I got up to help Jacob clear the plates away. I followed him, carrying them to the sink. "You don't have to do that, Bella." He said, as I made to wash the dishes.

"I want to help." I smiled. "I'll wash, you dry, deal?"

He grabbed a dish cloth and stood beside me at the sink. "Deal."

"I cant get over those two in there." I said, gazing in the direction of the living room. "Charlie hardly has two words to say to me, but you put him and Billy together and they won't shut up."

"I know, right? They're like a pair of cackling old women arguing over their knitting."

When I returned to the living room, wiping the suds from my hands on my jeans, I felt a different atmosphere between them at once. Billy was leaning close to Charlie, his tone was quiet but harsh.

"...down in the woods, almost like a party." He was saying. "There's something odd about them, Charlie. They're outsiders, they've always been weird and they're ridiculously pale."

With a bang, Charlie brought his fist down onto the coffee table. "You cant seriously be suggesting because they're pale they're in some way guilty of something?" He said scornfully. "That's a very strange kind of racism. I haven't a bad word to say about them myself, and I haven't got a clue about this woods rubbish, Billy. It's probably just kids being kids."

Billy looked up and saw me standing in the doorway. I tried to avert my gaze, not wanting to seem like I was eavesdropping.

We left soon after that, the atmosphere between the two men was tense. Jacob assured me that they often had their quarrels, reminding me of his earlier old women remark, and that it'd all be forgotten by morning. I waved to him from the car as we pulled away.

As soon as he'd gone back inside, I turned to Charlie. "What was all that about?"

"Nothing, Bells." His hand gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"Oh come on, you could cut the atmosphere with a bread knife in there. Who's pale? What's going on in the woods?" I pressed for information.

He let out a small sigh. "It's just Billy being Billy, that's all. Paranoid." He kept his eyes firmly on the road but carried on. "There's been a few rumours lately about something going on in the woods. People gathering there, apparently sometimes you can hear music coming from there at night. Like I said to Billy, it's likely just kids messing around. There's not much for you lot to do in Forks."

"But Billy doesn't agree?" I sat up a little straighter in my seat, intrigued.

"He thinks the Cullens have something to do with it."

"Who are th-"

He cut me off with the answer to the question on my lips. "They're a local family, real shy. Keep themselves to themselves mostly, we don't hear much of them. They live on the outskirts of town, I've never seen the house but apparently it's more like a mansion. They're money, the Cullens, but they deserve it. The father works at Forks General."

"The hospital?" I interrupted. These Cullens sounded pretty mysterious to me.

Charlie nodded. "He seems like a nice enough guy. Always works nights though, I guess he probably spends all day sleeping which is why no one sees him around. We've never had any trouble from his boys down at the station either, but to be honest no one sees much of them either really. Shy, like I said."

I listened intently. "So why does Billy think it's something to do with them? And if it's just kids having harmless fun, why does it matter?" I was slightly confused.

"He's just making ridiculous assumptions." Said Charlie, crossly. "He doesn't trust the Cullens, says they're odd so he wants to blame them for anything strange going on. He might be right for all I know but like you say Bells, it's not a big deal. Harmless. I just don't like Billy accusing them when he has no basis, it's rude."

*****

APOV:

Rose and I made our way into the restaurant, spotting Mike and Tyler sitting at a table waiting for us. When Mike caught sight of Rose's tight top his eyes nearly popped out of his damn head. I leaned into her as we waved, and shimmied over to them. "Suck it up, girl. It's only one night and we could get some serious vamp dirt from these two." I sang.

"I'm not sucking anything up, Brandon. Watch your mouth." Rose said, with a wry smile. I let out a giggle.

As we finally reached the table, we took our seats opposite our dates for the evening.

"Hi ladies," said Mike. "Looking good." He gave us an appraising sweep with his eyes.

I turned to Tyler. His brown eyes were watching me closely as he passed me a menu. His fingers brushed against mine, and he grinned. "See anything you like there?" He said slyly.

I arched my eyebrows at him. "I haven't looked yet, I'll let you know if something grabs me." I glanced down at the menu. "That was a figure of speech." I added serenely, prizing his hand off my thigh.

I peeked at Rose from the corner of my eye. Mike didn't seem to have said a word to her yet, he just sat there gaping at her. I stifled a laugh.

"Are you going to order something you're allowed to eat, or are you just going to stare at me like I'm a juicy steak all night?" Rosalie snapped, thrusting the menu in Mike's face. Atta girl, Rosie.

"Eh?" He said, pulled out of his reverie. "Oh, right." He took the menu from her.

Once we'd all got our food, and I fought the urge to put a napkin in their laps to catch the drool I tried my luck at getting some gossip out of our idiot dates. My beautiful dream vampire would never treat me like this. Concentrate Alice, concentrate...

"So, Tyler." I began, flashing him my most wicked smile and fluttering my eyelashes at him.

He visibly gulped.

"Tell me what school was like in boring old Forks." I'd start nice and slow, at least it was distracting him from staring at my cleavage. "And you, Mike." I threw in, saving Rose from a similar eye-undressing.

"Oh you know, boring really." Tyler said. Scintillating, darling.

Mike nodded, mouth full of pizza.

"No funny stories to tell us? What about the weirdos you were telling us about before?" I kicked Rose in the shins, warning her to get her ass over here and help me. Metaphorically.

Mike swallowed so as not to spray us with food, a courtesy Tyler had not granted me. I'd be shampooing pepperoni out of my hair for weeks. "You mean the Cullens? They're freaks alright."

I nodded encouragingly, peering at him from beneath my lashes. "Go on..." I urged him.

"Nah, we'd much rather talk about you two pieces of finger lickin' chicken, wouldn't we Mike?"

Oh Tyler, why even open your mouth? I don't know what makes me feel more nauseous, what you say or your breath. I fumed inwardly.

"Sure." Said Mike. Ever the conversationalist. "Like what you three get up to in that hotel, all by yourselves. I mean, we could always come keep you company. Or watch, whichever." He added, winking at Rose.

"Ugh. Don't make me break your pretty nose, Mike. I might chip a nail." Said Rose, looking at him in deep disgust.

"Come on girls, we're just being friendly." Tyler stretched forward, getting dangerously close to my thigh again.

I smiled coyly at him and ran my foot up his leg. As I reached his crotch, I bit my lip and leaned closer to him. His eyes bulged. "Touch me again and I'll snap it off. Got it?" I said sweetly, flexing my toes.

Mike was laughing like an idiot. "Look, ladies, I don't know how it works in Phoenix but we've bought you a nice meal here and I thought we were just going to have a good time."

Rosalie sat up straight, puffing her chest out. "I've had enough of this shit. Now lets get this clear," she said, jabbing a perfectly manicured fingernail at Mike. "Are you going to tell us any more on these Cullen freaks, or are you not?"

Mike looked baffled. "No baby, like I said, I've got bigger plans."

"Right." She said, standing up with a loud scrape of chair leg against lino. "It was a real _pleasure _ to meet you." On the word pleasure, she leant over, tangled her hand into Mike's golden locks of hair and thrust his face down into the pizza.

I stood up at once to join her. Mike whipped his head up, his face and shirt was entirely smothered in tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

"Not that you didn't have a pizza face before, you've gotta get some Clearasil for that skin sweetheart." I said, linked arms with Rosalie, turned on my heel and walked out.

"You want information on the Cullens? Jessica Stanley will have all the information you need, the slut!" Tyler yelled at our retreating backs.

******

BPOV:

"Clearasil?" I laughed, as Alice and Rose recounted their evening to me.

"I'm going to be scarred for life, Bella, I'm telling you." Alice shuddered.

We were all curled up on my bed, snaffling popcorn and laughing at my poor girls' horrid evening. This Tyler and Mike sounded like they needed to be neutered to me.

"Horny bastards." Rose said as she grabbed a fistful of popcorn.

"I hope you washed those hands after copping a feel of Mike's hair." I teased.

Rose mimed being sick as Alice said, clearly disgruntled "And all we got out of them was that the strange boys from school are called the Cullens. What a waste of time, I feel so cheated."

I sat bolt upright, eagerly. "The Cullens? You didn't mention that before! Wait til you hear about my evening..." My eyes were widening as I began piecing bits of information together in my head.

"Go on."

"Well, Charlie and I got to Jacobs and-"

"Wait. Who's Jacob?" Interrupted Rosalie, a handful of popcorn frozen halfway to her face.

I sighed, forgetting I hadn't told them this. I quickly filled them in on the rockpools, Jacob and the Jenga joke.

Alice's mouth was hanging open. "How come you didn't tell us this?!" She shuffled closer to me on her knees.

"Yeah, withholding juicy information isn't on, Swan." Rose flicked a piece of popcorn at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Because I knew you'd react like this. He's a friend." I emphasised the word 'friend'. "Now, listen to the most important part..."

When I fell silent, the three of us shared a meaningful look.

Alice was the first to speak. She cleared her throat carefully. "Well girls, I think we've found our vampires."

**A/N: Thanks so much for reading, cupcakes with sprinkles for all those that made it down here. :) Let me know what you think, good or bad! xx**


	3. Partying With the Pretentious

**Chapter 3: Partying With the Pretentious**

**A/N: Hello my lovelies! Thank you for the favourites/reviews, you rock my stripey lil socks :) So sorry it took so long to get this chapter to you, I promise chapter 4 will be much speedier.**

**I want to say an absolutely massive thank you to the lovely Sapphira Majoram for beta-ing this for me. She's the world's best beta and an even more incredible writer, I **_**urge **_**you to go check out her fabulous one-shots. Seriously, her words are magic.**

Alice barged into my room at 7 o'clock on the dot the next morning. As I blearily rubbed my eyes I stared wildly around, looking for the fire.

"What are you looking for?" She said brightly, following my eyes around the room.

"The life threatening situation that you've woke me up for." I muttered, already burrowing back under the duvet after noting the lack of axe murderer, fire or escaped rhinoceros.

Alice rolled her eyes and launched onto the bed like a hyperactive two year old. "Wake up, grumpy, we've got work to do." She said, leaning close to my face.

I raised my hands to bat her away. The only thing I wanted to do was drift back into the beautiful dream I'd been having where I was Juliet and being charmed by a sexy Romeo. "Too early Alice, whatever it is." I mumbled, shutting my eyes.

Suddenly the door flew open with a deafening crash. That woke me up. For a split second I wondered if there actually **was** an escaped rhinoceros. Just as I was about to leap out of bed and apologize to Alice for not listening to her, Rose burst through the door. She stood, framed in the doorway, her violet eyes flashing menacingly. Her blonde hair fell about her face in tangles. I nodded at her, understanding at once that she'd been subjected to a similar alarm clock.

"You're a dead woman, Brandon." She hissed. "It's 7 in the goddamn morning. Why were you hammering on my door like a deranged woodpecker?"

I shuffled over in the bed, making room for the zombie that, by day, was my glamorous friend. Rose fell dramatically onto the duvet, still glaring at Alice.

Alice looked at each of us, shaking her head. "Anybody would think you're a pair of old ladies, the way you carry on." I didn't think I had the energy required to slap her, so instead I rolled my eyes. For as long as I'd known Alice I wondered how she managed to always be so bright eyed and bushy tailed. I'd suspected extreme amounts of caffeine at first, but it turned out it was just Alice's nature to be so bouncy. If I didn't love her so much, I'd probably have killed her by now.

"Come on then." I said with a yawn, stretching my arms wide. "What's so important you'd wake us up? You know lack of sleep makes Rose murderous."

"Make it good." said Sleeping Beauty.

Alice turned to me. "You're going to ring this Jacob, and tell him to meet you down at the beach. We want to meet him."

I stared at her, incredulous. "Is that it?!" I was seriously considering taking back my thought about loving Alice and just killing her now. With a big stick. A big, sharp stick.

Rosalie had made a soft, approving sound at Alice's words. I turned to her. "I can't ring him now anyway, it's far too early! So there was no point whatsoever in waking us. Unless, there's more to this story." I said accusingly, whipping back round to Alice.

"Well, we want to see what he's like, as you've been spending so much time with him. Give him the once over, the seal of approval." She said eagerly.

"And?" I pressed.

"And then you could ask him where the woods are."

"Ah ha." I pointed a finger at her, triumphantly. "This is all just a big plan to get your hands on a chunk of undead."

"You have such a lovely way with words, Bella." Rose chimed in.

Alice folded her arms, unimpressed at being found out so early on. I saw the beginnings of a pout developing, so I gave in and compromised quickly, knowing I'd never win against the pout. "I'll phone him at 10. You can ask him about the woods yourself. That's the deal."

At 9:30 I picked up the hotel phone and rang Jacob's house, throwing Alice a dirty look over my shoulder as I dialed.

Jacob had seemed pleased to hear from me, and only too eager to meet up. Poor guy, he had no idea what was in store for him. We arranged to be at the beach at about 11, giving us time to get ready. By us, of course I meant Alice and Rosalie. I headed to the bathroom for a quick, refreshing shower, tugged a brush through my unruly hair and pulled on my clothes for the day. After all that, I was still hanging around for an hour waiting for my high-maintenance friends to primp and preen. I watched them selecting their most skimpy outfits. I had a sneaking feeling they'd be more suited to warm jackets than bikinis today, but Alice was ever the optimist.

We made it to the beach in time, to my surprise. I spotted Jacob at once, sitting on the low hanging branch of one of the skeleton trees by the shore. He caught sight of me and his face broke into a grin, beckoning us over to join him.

"Hi Jacob." I said, smiling. "These are my friends I was telling you about, Alice and Rosalie."

They waved at him. He laughed good-naturedly and waved back. "Hi you two, nice to meet you."

"Is it always this cold out here?" Rose shot at him as though he was La Push's very own weatherman.

"Pretty much." He said, with an apologetic shrug. "It can warm up though, and then everyone goes crazy. Stampedes of people wanting ice cream and sun tan lotion" His laugh was contagious and before long we all fell into easy conversation, chatting away like we'd all known each other for years.

After a good hour, Alice fixed him with an intent look. I spotted it right away, having been waiting for this all morning. I was shocked she'd lasted this long without blurting out the question she'd been burning to ask him.

"Jacob, where are the local woods round here?" She said, straight to the point.

He turned to her, surprised.

"The woods? You're not a secret tree-hugger are you?" He teased. "They're back in Forks..." He began giving her directions. The woods sounded pretty close to Charlie's house, I noted.

She smiled at him gratefully and thanked him, adding "Nope, no hippies here! We just heard there were some lovely woods round here but hadn't seen them. I was just curious." She swung her legs happily from the bit of the tree trunk she was perched on, her feet barely reaching the sand.

"Seems I'm a bit of a tour guide now." He joked. "First I know all the resident Swans of Forks, now I get questions about the weather and give directions."

His words reminded me of something. I might as well get in on the vampire seeking action, I thought to myself. "Hey, I bet you know Jessica Stanley don't you?"

Alice positively beamed at me.

His face creased into a frown, something I'd rarely seen before. "I do actually; my best friend Quil has this huge crush on her, the idiot. It's funny you asking about her, he's dragging me to this party tonight hoping he can talk to her there."

"What's she like? She sounds a bit..." Rosalie trailed off.

Jacob wrinkled his nose disgustedly. "She's rich, stuck and spoiled. I don't know what the hell Quil sees in her. The party's bound to be completely lame too; I'll just be standing there watching him drool over her all night." A sudden idea lit up his eyes. "Unless you girls want to come with us and save me from my fate?" He eyed us hopefully.

Of course we were going. He'd used the word 'party' in front of Alice, there was no way she'd let us back out of that.

The evening saw us holed up in the hotel room, following Alice's strict routine for getting ready. She was the only girl I knew who could turn the preparation for a party into a military operation.

First things first, the outfits. As hard as I tried to cling onto my jeans and hoodie, Rose gingerly pried them out of my clutches and forced me into the green shrub dress.

"You're not getting out of it this time Bella, so just quit trying." Alice said, watching me shake my head and stare, bewildered at the dress.

It was a green taffeta affair with black lace adorning the hem. I had to admit, if it was on anyone else I'd think it was pretty, but on me? I just felt silly. I disliked getting dressed up, I always ended up feeling like a little girl stealing from her mom's wardrobe.

I sensed I was fighting a losing battle as Rose ushered me into it, so I pulled on the dress with minimal fuss. For me, anyway.

Alice let out a squeak of delight at seeing me dressed up. "Give us a twirl!"

I swung my legs off the edge of the bed, and reluctantly spun around for her approval. I caught sight of myself in the mirror as I did it and wrinkled my nose. "I feel naked." I moaned, rubbing my exposed arms and collarbones.

"Don't be stupid." Rose berated me, while she wriggled into a very understated but beautiful black dress. It was knee length, longer than she'd usually choose, and it showed off her amazingly slim legs. She looked ultra classy.

I scurried over to my suitcase and began throwing my clothes over my shoulder, frantically searching for the item I sought. Alice looked scandalized that I could treat my clothes so heartlessly. Finally, my hands enclosed around my favorite white tunic. I pulled it over my head, straightening it over the top half of the dress. "Much better." I sighed.

Rose rolled her eyes but seemed to think better of saying anything, while Alice eyed me disapprovingly. "I suppose it's the best I can expect from you, really."

She grabbed her own outfit from its hanger and shimmied gracefully into it. It was a beautiful gray silk dress with a velvet band pinned in just under her cleavage. She looked stunning.

I allowed Rose to attack me with the curling tongs with good grace and very little complaining; I hoped Alice was proud of that. When she was finally finished and presented me with a mirror, I couldn't help but smile. Curls actually suited me. I twirled one around my finger, admiring it.

"Bella, you'll ruin the bounce!" Rose slapped my hand away. I suppose she was allowed to be frustrated, it'd taken her a good half hour to get my rebellious hair to play ball and actually curl in the first place. She'd straightened her own luscious tresses to within an inch of their life and applied some sweet smelling product until they had a mirror-like shine. Alice's beautiful hair was much more low maintenance, I watched her run mousse through it, a quick flick with the straighteners and she was good to go.

As the two of them pounced on me with makeup, I decided to put my foot down. I shielded my face from the many brushes being shoved at me and waited for them to lower their weapons. "The dress, I accept. I even had my hair done with no complaints, but I draw the line at the makeup." I argued. "You know I only wear lip balm."

"Not even a little mascara?" cooed Rose, waving the wand at me.

I folded my arms. "Absolutely not."

"Fine." said Alice, turning to the mirror to fix her own make up. "But when you wear that purple dress you got in Port Angeles you are letting us make you up, no arguments. Else..." She paused. "I'm telling Jacob you about the time you wet yourself at the theme park."

Blackmailing cow. I shook my head in disgust. That was below the fucking belt. "You wouldn't."

She turned around to look at me, smirking when she saw my shocked face. "Try me."

"Fine. Make up with the purple dress, but not a minute before." I scowled at her. "Also, I may never forgive you for employing such dirty tactics."

"You will." She said, with a little too much confidence for my liking.

I glanced back at Rose, who shrugged. "Don't look at me." She said, perching on the bed and slipping her shoes on. If you could call them shoes, they looked more like skyscrapers to me. They had to be 6 inches high.

"Those are adorable." Alice gave her an approving smile. She had chosen some gothic looking boots for her outfit, only Alice could pull off a look like that. If they thought I was wearing some neck-breakers with my dress, they were very much mistaken. I grabbed my converse and began putting them on.

"Do I even have to ask?" Rose was watching me with a grin on her face. "Only you, Bella."

"Yes Alice?" I pre-empted the outburst from the fashion police.

"Oh, I give up. It's very you, so work it darling." She grinned at me. "I'm still pleased we got you into a dress, I thought I'd die of shock."

I threw an unidentified face product at her.

"Bella, that stuff is $40 a pot!" She shrieked at me.

The whole process had taken three hours, but we were finally ready. Earlier at the beach we'd agreed to ring Jacob when we were dressed and he and Quil would drive to the hotel to meet us. We'd be going in the Sedan and following behind the boys in their car seeing as we still didn't know our way around. I cradled the hotel phone to my ear, and dialed Jacob's house.

"Hello?" I smiled to myself; even on the phone he was cheery.

"Hi, Jacob. It's Bella. We're ready whenever you are."

"Bella! I was beginning to think you'd been eaten by a bear or something. Jeez how long does it take you girls to get ready?"

"Alice held me prisoner in fashion jail; I've only just gnawed through the cell bars."

He laughed. "We'll be there in ten."

True to his word, ten minutes later there was a knock on our door. Alice was the nearest, and flung it open. "Hi guys!" She said, bouncing around in hyper party mode.

"Hi girls." It was strange seeing Jacob in a smart shirt; he seemed as uncomfortable as I was about the whole dressing up thing. He looked around and let out a low wolf whistle. "Hey, you three look great. Don't they?" He nudged the tall, burly boy next to him. This must be Quil.

"Yeah, you look great." He smiled at us shyly, running his hands through his black hair.

We all trooped outside. Jacob's red car was parked right next to the Sedan. "Is that a Volkswagen Rabbit?" asked Rose, staring at it.

Jacob turned to her in surprise. "Yeah, it is. I worked on it myself." He threw his chest out proudly.

"Impressive." She mused. "And don't look at me like that, girls can know about cars you know." She snapped, as Jacob's mouth was still hanging open slightly.

I grinned. Guys were always surprised and delighted in equal measure when they found out how much Rose loved cars. If you needed your gasket changed, she was your girl.

We bundled into the Sedan and waited for Jacob to pull away before following closely behind him.

Sometime later Jacob led us into the driveway of a terraced house. Music was thumping loudly, and squeals of laughter could be heard from inside. From the sounds of it, the party was already in full swing.

"We're fashionably late." Jacob noted, as Quil pushed the front door open and led us down the hallway.

There were people everywhere. Couples entwined on the staircase, groups huddled together swigging beer, girls swaying to the music and trying to catch a guy's eye.

"Where is she?" Quil was searching through the crowd.

"Relax, she's probably off bullying someone somewhere." Jacob said, rolling his eyes at his friend.

Quil ignored the dig at his crush. "I'll go and get us some cokes."

"I'll come with you." Said Alice brightly, and she skipped off with him into the kitchen.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." said Jacob, looking from Rosalie to me as we walked into the living room. This seemed to the main party area, it was even more crowded here. Tables had been pushed into the far corners of the room, the music blasted out from massive speakers and people were dancing, chatting and generally making a lot of noise in the center of the room.

"It's fine, we couldn't let you go through this alone." Rose teased, swaying her hips idly to the music.

"Hey baby, why don't you wiggle that ass in this direction?" Someone yelled.

The three of us whipped around, searching for the owner of the voice. A guy with blonde hair was leering at Rose.

"Ugh Jesus, Mike Newton." She flipped him her middle finger.

"You know you want me, you pretty little whore." He slurred.

"Get lost, you complete asshat." Rose turned her back on him, and Jacob and I stood around her protectively. She began recounting the tale of Mike and Tyler to Jacob. As he roared with laughter, Alice and Quil returned clutching five coke cans.

"What are we laughing at?" enquired Alice.

Rosalie wordlessly jerked her head towards Mike. Alice clapped her hands to her mouth. "Eww." was all she managed to say.

Suddenly, Quil let out a gasp. Jacob nudged me quickly and pointed towards a group of about 5 girls barely three feet from of us. They were gathered together, laughing like a pack of hyenas, tossing their hair pretentiously. "See the one with the curly brown hair?" He whispered, loud enough for us girls to hear but Quil, on his other side, couldn't. "That's her, Jessica."

I peered at her; she seemed to be the leader of the group. The other girls fawned over her, their eyes all on her.

"Right." said Quil, taking a swig out of his can. He seemed to be steeling himself for something.

"Don't do it, man." Jacob said, in a warning tone.

"I'm not going alone, you're coming over with me." Quil's eyes were pleading.

Jacob groaned but nodded, showing solidarity to his friend even in the face of a girly clique. The two of them set their drinks down and strolled nonchalantly over to the girls.

Alice giggled at Jacob's swagger as we strained our ears to listen.

"Hi Jessica, I'm Quil." said Quil, bravely.

The blonde girl next to Jessica looked at him as though he were a particularly repulsive slug.

"Are you talking to me?" Jessica asked her voice high and whiney.

"Yes." said Quil, nervously shuffling from one foot to the other. "I was wondering if I could umm... go grab you a... drink..." He floundered under her disbelieving stare.

"No thanks." She said coolly, waving her hand as if to dismiss him. "And eww, you smell like a dog."

Quil flushed scarlet, looking like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole. Jacob stepped closer to her, his hand on Quil's trembling shoulder. When he got right up to her face, he sniffed. "Well, you smell like a bitch." As she yelped furiously, he turned around without another word and pulled Quil away.

"Bad luck, hon." Said Alice, giving Quil a quick squeeze. "Come and dance with me instead."

He smiled dejectedly at her. "You don't need to give me a pity dance."

"Pity nothing, I want to. You can have either me or Rose, good luck getting Bella to dance."

I scowled at her, but Jacob laughed. "You don't dance?" He asked me, as Alice steered Quil into the middle of the room.

"Not unless I feel like a trip to the emergency room, no." I grinned at him.

"Oh don't be so melodramatic, Bella." Rose rolled her eyes.

As Jacob wandered off to get us some drink refills, the song that was blaring out ended abruptly. A nasal, whiney voice could be heard clearly from where we stood.

"... Yeah like the Cullens would be seen at a party like this." Jessica was sneering. "They're so weird. They think they're something special, especially the youngest one. But let's face it, if he can pass up the opportunity of hitting this..." She pointed to herself, while her bimbos nodded at her. "... Well, he's clearly gay." She concluded. There was a general murmur of assent as the next song kicked in and their voices were drowned out.

I turned to Rose, eager to see if she'd heard.

"Well that explains it then, I thought it'd be something juicier than that." She said. "She hit on one of them and they brushed her off. That earns them kudos with me, anyway."

I nodded. "Immortals have good taste, Alice'll be delighted."

When Alice rejoined us, we filled her in on what we'd overheard. She punched the air excitably. "Go sexy vamps, rejecting the cheap whore!"

By about 11:30 some of Quil and Jacob's friends from La Push had turned up and they all seemed to be having a good time. We, on the other hand, were bored stiff. Jacob tried his best to involve us in the flow of conversation, but most of it went above my head, at least.

"We're just getting some more drinks." He said, after a while.

"This is dull, let's get out while we're still conscious." Rose moaned.

Alice ushered us closer to her, her eyes glistening in a way that made me suspicious. I suspected a plan. "I've had a brilliant idea." She hissed. I was right then. "Let's go check out the woods."

"You want us to creep around the woods in the dead of night?" I asked her. Honestly, one day her 'brilliant ideas' would be the death of us.

She nodded, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "We'll find them, I can feel it."

"You want us to sneak around in the dark after vampires? We might get eaten." I said, pointedly.

She rolled her eyes at me; clearly she wasn't going to dignify what I'd said with a response.

"What do you think?" I appealed to Rose.

She sucked in a deep breath, eyes darting between Alice and I, clearly thinking through her response. "I think if we don't leave this party now we'll die of boredom. I also think if we go back to the hotel, Alice won't shut up about the woods and we'll never hear the end of it."

"So you're saying we should go?" I was shocked; Rose was usually on my side when it came to Alice's weird plans.

"I'm saying a pissed off Alice will probably do us more harm than a bunch of vampires."

I sighed. There was too much truth in this to ignore. Alice looked like she was ready to implode with excitement. Thinking I was likely to regret this, I nodded. "Ok, let's do it. But if we all die, I'm blaming you both."

I spotted Jacob and his friends coming back over. When he reached us, I tapped him on the shoulder. "Jacob I think we're going to bail for the night."

He looked slightly disappointed, which surprised me. "Ok girls, give me 5 minutes and we'll be with you."

"What? Oh no you don't have to do that, we can find our way back. We might even take a midnight stroll."

He frowned at me. "Are you sure? I really don't mind."

"Honestly, I remember the way. But thanks." I flashed him an appreciative smile; he really was a good friend.

The three of us gave him and Quil a big hug. "Thanks for a lovely evening." said Alice as we made our way into the hall. When they'd disappeared back into the living room, she leaned into us. "Right ladies, its vampy time." She winked, leading us outside and into heaven only knows what.

**A/N: Thanks for reading darlings! Reviews = love. Pretty please? Chapter 4 coming up shortly... **


	4. Wandering Into the Woods

**Chapter 4: Wandering Into the Woods.**

**A/N: I'm so sorry it's taken forever to get this to you my lovelies, I hope the wait was worth it!**

**This chapter is dedicated to Never The End Shall Meet, who couldn't wait for the vampy times. ;)**

**Massive thank you once again to my beautiful, magic-working Beta Sapphira Majoram, this is totally your baby too darling. :) **

**Aaand on with the story!**

"Are you sure you know the way, Rose? I've seen that weirdly shaped tree three times now."

"I thought the woods were near Charlie's house, we need to double back."

Alice let out a wail. "We're lost aren't we, as thoroughly lost as Rose's virginity in high school."

Rose threw her a dirty look from the driver's seat. "Would you two relax and give me a break, I know what I'm doing."

"Yes, you're getting us lost."

"We are not lost!" She bellowed.

It felt like we'd driven around the entire Olympic Peninsula when finally, the car pulled to a stop and we stepped out into the moonlight. The trail into the woods was obscured by many overgrown trees, waving hauntingly in the darkness.

"Anybody else think this feels like the start of a horror movie?" I said, wrapping my arms around myself as a barrier against the biting wind.

"Don't be such a wimp." Alice chided, seizing mine and Rose's hands and tugging us forward.

She was chattering animatedly as we fought our way through branches and roots to stay on the winding path. I kept my eyes down, concentrating hard on where I was placing my feet. After my fifth stumble headfirst into a tree, Rose sarcastically offered me a piggyback. As I opened my mouth to retort Alice flung an arm out, catching me hard in the stomach.

"Hey!" I scowled.

"Shhh." she said, pressing a finger to her lips.

As we stopped to listen we could hear music carrying on the wind. Alice turned to beam at me; I could just make out her eyes sparkling in the gloom. She tugged us eagerly deeper into the woods, heading off the trail. I barely had time to appreciate the irony of humans hunting vampires before she'd stopped dead and I ran into her back.

A low overhanging branch was blocking a view of a beautiful clearing. The moonlight shone down brightly into it, trees were surrounding the edges and the grass was overgrown, dotted with wildflowers.

I let out an involuntary gasp as my eyes focused on the scene in front of me. Rose clamped a hand over my mouth.

There was a gathering of people in the clearing. Some were leaning against tree trunks, others lying contentedly in the grass. There were even a few sitting high up in the trees. My eyes swept over the scene, and I counted eight figures. The music seemed to be emanating from an iPod docking station resting against one of the tree trunks.

It wasn't simply the fact that there were eight people in the depths of the woods looking completely at home that had made me gasp. It was the appearance of these people, although by now I was sure they were definitely more than mere people. Their skin was the purest alabaster white, paler than even my ghostly complexion. Each set of eyes had deep purple smudges underneath them, as though they'd suffered insomnia all their lives. And the eyes themselves were all the glorious golden colour of honey. They were breathtakingly beautiful, every single one of them. Inhumanly beautiful. I was amazed by how quickly I accepted that these people were not human. But when faced with their glorious beauty, it was painfully obvious to me. I'd never seen anything like it before.

In the five seconds it had taken me to take all this in, one of the figures had broken away from the rest and appeared before us in the blink of an eye. The branch that I assumed had been hiding us was swept away instantly. I stared up, terrified and found myself looking into the eyes of a huge guy. He had to be at least 6'5", towering over us like a giant. Though his curly dark brown hair and young dimpled face made me realize he wasn't much older than we were, I knew he could overpower us in about a millisecond. He was built like a fucking bear. I felt Alice let out a frightened squeak next to me.

"Hey guys, who ordered food?" He called. As he looked us up and down, he rubbed his stomach. "Man, it all looks so good; I don't know what to eat first."

Run, run! I screamed inside my head, urging my legs to move and carry me away from the nightmare we'd walked into. But they wouldn't move, not an inch.

In the distance I saw a woman crouch onto all fours and spring towards us, her strawberry blonde hair whipping behind her with the speed. "Save some for me, you greedy pig." She demanded as she approached us, hissing.

They circled round us deliberately, like cats stalking a bird. Like lions stalking an impala. Like fucking vampires stalking three stupid humans. And still I couldn't move. The fear was prickling up my back, plummeting into the pit of stomach and surging like acid through my veins, but still my useless body wouldn't act to save itself. I could hear my own pulse throbbing in my ears, wondering how much time left my heart had to beat. I thought briefly of Charlie, of Renee, and even of my goldfish back in Phoenix as I stood, facing the last few seconds of my life.

Suddenly, the male straightened up and in a flash was an inch from my face. I shut my eyes on death, clenching my fists and willing myself to not scream. But inside my head I was yelling fit to bust.

A loud, deep laugh filled my ears. Shocked, I allowed myself to peer through my eyelashes at the boy towering infront of me. He was heaving with laughter, and held out a giant hand to haul me up. I hadn't realized I'd sunk to my knees. Unable to accept the relief flooding through me, I opened my eyes fully and looked over at the woman. She too was straightening up onto her feet. "I'm on a diet anyway." She winked.

As I was pulled to my feet, I watched shakily as he offered the massive hand to Rosalie and Alice in turn. Seemingly they'd fallen as well.

He flashed us a wicked grin, the dimples on his face widening. "Don't worry, we're what you might call vegetarians. So unless one of you three has some carrots on you, you're safe."

As he led us into the clearing, Alice faced him bravely. "So you don't eat people?"

"That's what I said, shortie."

"But we know what you are, you're vampires." she said, clearly throwing caution to the wind. I felt like kicking her; she was challenging someone as to why they weren't killing us. The situation just got more ridiculous.

He turned to her, his face alight with amusement. "Well spotted, I'm impressed. But just because we're not going to attack you, doesn't make it wise to wander around the woods in the dark you know." Although his words were stern his face was still etched with a delighted smile.

He ushered us into the center of the clearing now, and I glanced around me, getting a better look at the impossibly beautiful people surrounding me. My eyes were drawn immediately to a boy with messy bronze hair sitting with his back pressed against a tree trunk. He was scribbling intently in a notebook, seeming not to have noticed our arrival. He was wearing a gray trench coat, but I could make out well formed muscles on his slender chest. Not that I was looking.

I turned back to Rose and Alice, the former was chatting to our would-be-murderer as though this sort of thing happened to her everyday. The other vampires began gathering round us with interest in their liquid gold eyes, and he introduced us to them all.

"This little succubus is Tanya." He gestured at the strawberry blonde woman who, moments earlier I thought was going to rip my throat out. She stretched out her hand and we smiled nervously at her.

A dark haired couple stepped forward now, their hands interlinked. I noticed a slight olive complexion in their pale faces. "This is Carmen and Eleazar." He said.

"Good evening." said the man, Eleazar in a gentle Spanish accent.

The three of us nodded shyly, subconsciously pressing close to each other. "You haven't told us your name yet." Rose shot at the bear/man/vampire.

He turned to face her. "Well you haven't introduced yourselves either." He pointed out with a grin. "But I'm Emmett." He held out his great paw of a hand and she shook it.

"I'm Rosalie, and this is Alice and Bella." She waved an airy hand in our direction. I was taken aback by how unafraid she was, considering she'd not been exactly keen on this whole idea.

The introductions were interrupted by a loud squabble breaking out in the far corner. We all craned our necks to look.

A tall man with sandy brown hair held up in a ponytail was prodding at a woman with the palest blonde hair I'd ever seen. He appeared to be goading her into something.

"Garrett, don't be ridiculous." The woman grumbled, with a high pitched laugh. "I'm not going to do it."

The man playfully jabbed her in the ribs and backed away, almost like a boxer. "Come on, one little blast. You know I annoy you enough to do it."

She rolled her eyes and seemed to go into deep thought, her face creasing slightly. Then she stretched out a pure white hand to the man. He clasped it eagerly in his own, clearly anticipating something. In a flash, his knees buckled and he collapsed flat on his back.

Emmett let out a roar of laughter. "Garrett and Kate." he told us, as the man got to his feet, looking dazed.

He whipped around, quick as lightning, to face a tree. "Jasper, get down here and meet our new guests." My eyes followed the direction of his and found myself staring at yet another beautiful figure sitting high in the branches. He too was very tall, slender and had honey blonde hair. I watched with interest as he sprang up, leaped to the ground with apparent ease and landed stealthily on his feet like a cat.

He approached us with caution, looking as though he were in great discomfort. "Ladies." He inclined his head politely.

I heard a gentle intake of breath somewhere to my right and glanced down to find Alice quite plainly ogling this Jasper guy. "Hi Jazz." she said, with a tinkling laugh.

Jazz? I rolled my eyes. Jasper seemed surprised too. He shot her a quizzical look, but said nothing.

As soon as Jasper had joined us, I'd felt an overwhelming sense of calm that I couldn't explain or put into words. My whole body seemed to relax in his presence, and I allowed myself to breathe. I hadn't even noticed that I'd been holding my breath but now I let the tranquility wash over me. Even with my new calmness, it hadn't escaped my notice that Emmett hadn't called the bronze haired boy over.

"So, it seems that these three know we're scary vampires." teased Emmett.

"Edward won't like this." said Jasper, softly. His eyes were fixed firmly on Alice, who was smiling beguiling up at him.

"We won't tell anyone." she promised, staring up at him from beneath her eyelashes.

Oh jeez, we hadn't been here ten minutes and it'd started. I tried to catch Rose's eye to share an exasperated look and my jaw dropped. She was leaning cozily close to Emmett and squeezing his biceps, a dreamy smile playing on her lips. Was I the only one not drooling over the immortals?

Emmett and Rose had struck up a conversation about cars. That's it Rose, go for the jugular. I smirked at my own pun. Like most mortal guys, Emmett had been bowled over by her knowledge on the subject and I could tell she was working hard to impress him. Her eyes lit up when he started to talk to her about his jeep and they were soon discussing her baby back home, a shiny red BMW.

Jasper and Alice were similarly paired. I watched as Alice worked her magic on him, gazing up at him like he was the only guy in the world as he spoke, nodding at everything he said. His guarded expression seemed to soften around Alice, and he smiled warmly as they chatted. They seemed to have an instant connection that went beyond words.

Trust my girls; they could get vampires eating out the palms of their hands.

"…unlike Bella, she drives the rustiest, slowest Chevy I've ever seen in my life." Rose was saying, flipping her hair casually.

"Watch your mouth." I retorted. "You're quick to insult my truck, but when you need a designated driver I'm the first one you call."

"Only because I know you drive so slow that the only collision we could have would be with a snail."

Emmett let out a deep, appreciative laugh and draped his arm over Rose's shoulder. "Easy now, miss fiery."

"Emmett," I said quickly, cutting through the insult I sensed Rosalie was about to fling at him. "Who's the guy in the corner?"

Emmett rolled his eyes. "That's Edward, our charming brother. Don't waste your time, Bella."

I bristled slightly. I had no intention of wasting my time, or drooling over these strangers, unlike my more hormonally charged friends. "Don't worry, I didn't plan on bothering him. I was just asking."

"Emmett, stop being a jerk." said Rosalie, pouting at him. "Bring him over and introduce us."

Under Rosalie's command already, Emmett muttered "Don't say I didn't warn you," and called over in the bronze haired boy's direction. "Eddie, there's some pretty girls here who want to meet you."

We all shrieked our disapproval at Emmett's words while the boy called Edward sighed, set down his notepad, and came over to greet us.

My breath caught in my throat as I got a better look at him, I couldn't help myself. He had the most gorgeous face I'd ever seen in my life, it could have been carved by angels. His jaw was strong, his lips full and I had the strangest urge to nibble them. I shook my head, trying to snap myself out of this pathetic notion.

"Edward, this is Bella, Alice and Rosalie." Emmett pointed us out.

Edward raised his eyebrows at Emmett's arm around Rosalie. "Hello there." he said, his voice low and musical. "To what do we owe this pleasure?" His eyes met mine briefly, and I felt my heart flutter like a traitor.

"These three beauties stumbled right into our laps, didn't they Jasper?" said Emmett.

Edward's brow creased into a frown. "And you intend to keep them prisoner?" He asked coolly.

"Oh I sincerely hope so." said Jasper, in his charming Southern accent.

Alice let out a squeal of delight at this, and nestled into his side. I saw Jasper's body stiffen slightly, saw his chest rise as if he'd held his breath and then, gradually, he relaxed.

I felt Edward's eyes on me again. "So, you're Bella." It wasn't a question. I felt myself blush like a tomato, which was absolutely ridiculous. He scowled at me, as if my reaction angered him.

"Do you blush at everything?" he said rudely, but his lips were twitching as though he found it entertaining. "I've seen you do it at least four times since you've been here."

"Only in the company of vampires." I snapped, annoyed that he'd noticed.

He bristled and fixed me with a torturous look. "They know?" he shot at Emmett.

Emmett shrugged. "Apparently." he said, as if he couldn't give a damn.

"The Volturi are going to be insufferable." he commented blandly.

"Well, that'll make a pleasant change." said Jasper.

I didn't know or care who these Volturi people were, they sounded fairly sensible to me. Of course the face of perfection would be arrogant, I thought to myself. But arrogant didn't quite cover it; every time he looked at me I saw something else in his eyes. He seemed bothered by my mere presence, angry at me for existing.

"What was that you were writing earlier?" I blurted out, cursing myself for my curiosity.

He smirked. "You were watching me were you? You little stalker." He seemed almost smug with the knowledge I'd been looking at him.

"Your brother made me think you were all going to attack us. So I was sizing you up, seeing if I could take you."

He raised his eyebrows, looking thoroughly amused. "It's usually me that does the taking, you know."

Instantly I felt the flush creep up my cheeks again. I was furious with myself.

His reaction was even more dramatic than last time I'd blushed in his presence. He was clenching his fists, looking like he wanted to punch me.

"I don't doubt it. Apparently you don't take girls like Jessica Stanley though?" I questioned mockingly.

He chuckled darkly. "And live for eternity with the memory? No, thank you."

"So, are you going to answer my question about what you were writing, or are you just going to scowl at me all night?" I retorted. He was bothering me more than he should.

"I haven't decided yet." His voice was velvet and delicious. And thoroughly fucking annoying.

"Never mind. I imagine it's just some angst filled diary entry about how your hair won't lie flat." Apparently something about this guy made me use third grader comebacks.

His lips curved upwards into a crooked smile. If I wasn't so pissed off, I'd have found it adorable.

"I find it hard to believe you can stand there mocking my hair, when yours looks like that." He gestured to my hair.

"What's wrong with my hair?" I said quickly, raising my hands to it.

"It looks like a haystack."

I stomped my foot and turned my back on him. Why did no one tell me vampires were so infuriating?

My girls were still entwined with their respective vamps, making plans to meet up the next evening.

"We'll take you to this great bar in Port Angeles." Emmett was promising.

Alice raised her eyebrows at him. "You go to bars?"

"Of course. You think we have to drink to dance, shortie?" He teased. "Anyway, we'll pick you up at 10.30. Where are you staying?"

When Rose told him the name of the hotel, I thought I saw Emmett and Jasper exchange a fleeting look but seconds later I was sure I'd imagined it.

"Ok blondie." He flashed her a cheeky grin. "And we'll bring dearest Eddie along for you too, Bella. Keep that sexual tension bubbling." He winked and I scowled.

"That's really not necessary, Emmett." I assured him. But he wouldn't take no for an answer, despite my protests and Edward's death glares.

"We'll walk you back to your car." said Jasper, scooping Alice up into his arms. What a protective guy, Alice looked like she was in heaven.

The two sickening couples, the frowning Edward and I, ambled through the woods once more. I tripped over every root, bramble and branch along the way. Edward would stop, haul me to my feet and sigh at me in quick succession. As the car came into sight, about three feet away I quickened my pace. Bad move. Somehow, I slipped over a twig and landed face first in the mud. A goddamn twig.

Edward chuckled, clearly very amused. "Don't you ever look where you're going?"

"Don't you ever take your head out of your own ass?" I ignored his outstretched hand and pulled myself upright.

"You're almost cute when you're angry." He did that crooked smile thing again.

"Says the guy with the wonky face. Can't you smile straight?" My voice was getting higher out of irritation as I jumped into the car, slammed the door and rushed to drive away from the beautiful fucking jerk, trying not to think about how much he'd gotten under my skin.

**EPOV:**

I watched as she flung herself haphazardly into the car, shoving the door shut with a lot more force than was necessary. I carried on looking as it carried her away from me, the dark haired, irritable creature that had shaken me so inexplicably. It was ironic that I should consider her irritable, she must have thought I was downright insufferable.

When I could finally tear my eyes away from the fast vanishing glow from their tail-light, my gaze fell upon Emmett and Jasper. They both looked as if they'd been simultaneously hit over the head with a frying pan. Emmett's mouth was actually hanging open, his eyes staring wildly in the same direction mine had been moments before. Apparently, he'd never seen women before.

I'd expected a little more decorum from Jasper though. Emmett could be a bit of a typical salivating teenager, but my other brother was surely more of a gentleman. Wrong. His eyes were flickering from Emmett to me with sheer disbelief, one finger pointing at the road, as if he were mutely asking us to confirm that he was hallucinating.

Their minds were filled with numb silence too, which surprised me most. There wasn't even the slightest whisper of crudeness in Emmett's thoughts, which had to be a first.

"What is wrong with you two idiots?" I scowled, clicking my fingers under their noses, hoping to pull them from whatever trance these girls had put them under. Trying to ignore that I felt a little bewitched myself.

"Human girls wander into the forest and you invite them to the party to show them your fangs?"

My words didn't seem to register at all, neither of them even looked at me. They just stood there unmoving by the side of the road, like the palest scarecrows in the world.

"They'd be beyond stupid if they didn't tell anyone about this. Carlisle's going to go insane if we have to move again, and I'm not particularly keen to have people wave garlic at me like Buffy the fucking vampire slayer." I pressed on, my fists curling at my sides as I paced around them standing there like a pair of morons.

Emmett broke from his silence first. "Did you guys **see **Rosalie?" He threw at us. "She knows about cars, man. I'm serious. A girl like that, and she knows cars." He let out a groan of longing, and leaned back against a gnarled old tree behind him. The tree seemed to protest at having all this weight thrown onto its aged trunk, and bowed slightly.

"Alice.." Came a slow voice to my left. The words sounded so far away and soft, as though the wind had carried them a great distance to reach my ears. If it hadn't been for the accent, I wouldn't have recognized Jasper's voice at all.

I whipped my head around swiftly to get a good look at him. He was still standing desolately in the same place, with a hand outstretched to the night. He didn't seem able to manage another word.

"You can stop pointing now, I did see them too." I muttered irritably, as I strode over and grasped his cool hand in my own, dragging it back down to his side.

This movement seemed to pull him from his reverie. His golden eyes snapped up to mine, even in the darkness I could see the wonder glistening in them.

"Wasn't she beautiful?" He spoke gently again, as though he was struggling with the concept of words.

I was interrupted from the furious remark I was about to unleash on Jasper by a loud train of thought filling my head.

_'...Take her back to mine... Show her the jeep... That body...'_

"Could I get a little courtesy thought filtering please?" I winced, as I got a colorful description of exactly what Emmett intended to do with the blonde's body.

"Sorry." Came the gruff response.

I was slightly relieved at this quick return to normality. Maybe I'd be able to restore some sense to the whole situation before it was too late. If I could get to the girls quickly, spin them a tale, pretend Emmett was just trying to impress them...

"Why were you such a jerk to the other one?" Emmett said, appearing suddenly at my side.

"Bella." I said through gritted teeth. For some reason it annoyed me that he couldn't remember her name. Too wrapped up in his little fantasy with the leggy Rosalie, I imagine. "And you expect me to cosy up to her so you can pull blondie? They're **human. **Jesus Christ how can you be so stupid." I threw out my fist in rage and landed a punch right into the tree he'd just been leaning against. A branch splintered from the rest with a harsh crack and tumbled down the trunk. That tree was having a rough night.

"Hey, don't go all angsty on us." Emmett prodded my shoulder, trying to antagonise me. He'd like nothing better to fight this out like the monsters we were, and I knew it. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction, we were too civilised for that shit.

Sensing defeat, he gave it one last shot. "Just because she didn't fancy you. What, did you hear her thoughts and realise she thought you were a miserable bastard? Well that's not our fault, mate."

"Don't be so stupid." I scowled at him.

"Well what's your problem with her then? She's beautiful, you should be charming her and earning us all brownie points." He retorted. He always expected me to play wing-man when he and Jasper pulled random women, it was very tiring.

"She's just so fucking fragile." I spat the last word, furious. She really was, and it was absolutely infuriating. She wandered around so freely, looking like she could shatter into tiny pieces at any moment. I had the distinct urge to wrap her in bubble wrap and carry her under my arm like some kind of rag doll. It incensed and amused me in equal measure.

I sighed, and blew the breath out from my mouth fiercely. It would kill me to admit the truth, and I wasn't about to lay myself out like that to be ridiculed. Just because I couldn't hear some stupid girl's thoughts. Just because she was the first in over a hundred years. How could that even be? Maybe she was just such an airhead, there was nothing to hear. Even as I mocked Bella cruelly inside my own head, I knew it was unjustified. I'd seen her cheeks flush a beautiful raspberry hue when I'd embarrassed her, seen her scowl pitifully at me as I teased her. There had to be more bubbling under the surface in her mysterious, impenetrable mind.

Strangely, thinking of Bella had calmed me and washed away the urge to pummel Emmett to a pulp. "You wont get me to spar with you, so try and talk like a normal person." I turned to face him and caught him smirking at me. His head was tilted curiously, waiting for my reaction.

Jasper felt the need to chime in now, and I felt his odd calming power soothe Emmett's mind too. "I cant not see Alice again, human or not."

"How did you cope being so close to her?" Emmett was enquiring, and I had to admit I'd been wondering that too. Jasper was the newest to our vegetarian diet, and usually had a little difficulty with, well, not killing people.

"I don't know." His silky tone was quick, excited. If the girls were here now they wouldn't be able to catch a word of this. "She's just different. I'd hurt myself before I hurt her."

The passion in this statement threw me a little, I had witnessed the strange connection between Alice and Jasper but I still couldn't begin to understand it.

"Either way, we're all taking them out tomorrow night. And there will be no argument from you, got it?" Emmett was challenging me to argue but I was too busy arguing with myself. The sense in cancelling the plans and keeping away was obvious, we shouldn't be putting these girls in danger and risking showing our true identity either. On the other hand, the lure of Bella's deep brown eyes was so very strong. The desire to find out more about her, which would require more traditional methods than I was used to. I knew from that moment I'd be too weak to resist. However fucking annoying she was.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Edward loves reviewers *coughs* I mean.. I love reviewers.. hehe. Xx**


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